Recent Additions

The Ambisonic Toolkit (ATK) brings together a number of classic and novel tools for the artist working with Ambisonic surround sound. The ATK toolset has been been gathered, authored and developed by Joseph Anderson over a number of years, and is now a collaborative open source (GPL) project.

Getting Ambisonics Around. An
article detailing the off-line production of G-Format
material from B-Format and 2-ch UHJ sources and issuing it on DTS-CDs. April 2006 (PDF, 953K). Sample
decodes are also available.

Some exciting new developments in the field, with the definition
of an Ambisonic File Format and the specification for a software player.
See the Gear/Equipment page
for more details.

Articles

An extensive series of new and existing broadcasting-related articles
can be found on the Transdiffusion and EMC sites
Find my other Transdiffusion articles by clicking here.

Welcome

Welcome to Ambisonic.net
- the Ambisonic Network - a collection of articles, sources and links detailing
the subject of Ambisonic surround-sound and digital audio technology,
compiled by engineer/producer Richard
Elen with over 25 years of experience of using the system.

"Ambisonics
goes further than stereo in that what it does (to first order) is to
sample the acoustic field in such a way that the combination of the signals from all the
loudspeakers in the array produces ... a reconstruction of the original
acoustic wave field (both travelling and standing wave components). If
a listener puts his head in the sound field, because the wavefronts are
similar to the original, the perception of directionality and space should
correspond to the original too. It is a "wavefront reconstruction" scheme
in the small. The ear signals (crosstalk and all) will be correct if the
reconstructed wavefronts are correct. This is just like natural hearing.
Increasing the number of loudspeakers in Ambisonics (each fed its correctly-decoded
signal) increases the accuracy of the reconstruction and the region over
which it holds up. The interaural arrival-time differences also correspond
to natural hearing in Ambisonics."

Comments
on this site will be gratefully received, especially notification of errors
(I scanned in some of this material as the original files had long since
vanished; some OCR errors may have slipped by). If you find any broken
links, please report them.

The interwoven
circles logo was developed by Dr. Geoffrey Barton, the inventor of Trifield.
It is based on the original Ambisonic logo which symbolizes the content of
a B-format Ambisonic signal, consisting of W, the mono component (represented
by the large outer circle); X (front minus back) represented by the vertical
figure-eight composed of two circles; Y (left minus right), represented by
the horizontal pair of circles; and Z (up minus down) which is represented
by the smaller circle at the center, suggesting a figure-eight seen from
above. It is a
registered trademark of Wyastone Estate Ltd / Nimbus Records, and is used here by kind permission of the trademark
holders. A great deal of formerly proprietary Ambisonic technology is now
in the public domain. The majority of intellectual property not in the public
domain is held by Dr Geoffrey Barton (including Trifield technology, so-called
'Vienna' decoders and items related to the Gerzon Estate). Contact Dr Barton
for licensing details. It
is customary for the Ambisonic logo and mention of the system to be added
to record releases, etc, and this usage is encouraged. All trademarks and
registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are
duly recognised.